Wrong choice to name this book "haunted empire". To the author: be sensitive enough that not only Jobs made Apple what it is today. There are also thousands and thousands of employees who also made their part. It is called a "corporation", in case you missed that part out.

"My hope in writing this book was to be thought-provoking and to start a conversation which I'm glad it has." - Are you just needy for attention? We'll you got it, by making a fool out of yourself.

When asked to comment on the book, Cook should have said, 'I haven't read it.'

The book is crap.

The reviewers know it's crap.

The author knows it's crap; her objective is to keep people talking about it for as long as she can.

I don't think Tim was as concerned by his portrayal; he was probably incensed by the portrayal of Apple's employees, and while his instinct to stand up for his staff is admirable, I think this was a poor response.

If she really is that confident about her book. Why does she need to quote Walter Isaacson's on the front cover?

To me it feels like Walter wanted to do her a favor back as she might have helped him out with the research of his book about Steve Jobs. It is a human act of kindness which she clearly took advantage of (by ostentatiously putting it on the front cover). It doesn't add to the credibility of her book.

I agree with Tim. She fails to grasp the essence of Apple. Apple is now a THREE headed company:

A) You have Tim taking care of the business,

B) Jonathan Ive taking care of the products,

C) and Phil Shiller taking care of marketing.

These are three incredible gifted individuals that complement each other. They are equally important and have unparalleled freedom in the things they do. That is the beauty of the new Apple.

A chilidsh, petty, and trollish response by the author, as expected. It's the equivalent of trolls who come in and vomit out non-sensical horse-shit about Apple, and when people respond that what they're saying is untrue, their retort is "LOL LOOKS LIKE A GOT A BIG REACTION, PROVES FANBOYS CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH".

Person A: The sky is green
Person B: That's nonsense, it's blue
Person A: So, looks like I struck a nerve. Just goes to show how right I am.

It's the tactic of attention whores and petty liars. You see it everyday with politicians and smear campaigns. I agree that Cook should not even have dignified the book with a comment, no matter how tempting it was to call it out. It's exactly what people like this want, and she'll milk the extra attention for all its worth.

That's a good description of it. I was about to post yesterday that it would come across like it struck a nerve and now the article has been updated with that exact phrase. This author is taking the route of the tabloids and trash publications like TMZ.

Cook could have ignored it but as others have mentioned, since it already got the publicity, it might be best to call it out as nonsense.

The title of the book has been chosen well to play on the widely held view that Apple now has a Steve-shaped hole in it and will eventually decline without that leadership. There's some merit in this because Apple would have gone bankrupt years ago had it not been for Steve's return and he was the guy everyone reported to. What I see of the people left at Apple during their public appearances isn't so much a lack of direction but a lack of purpose. Not a question of where do they go next, what do they make, when does it happen but why. Steve had the reason for making Apple in the first place, he had the reason for making NeXT and he had the reason for backing Pixar when he could have picked any other company.

Steve always alluded to doing the right thing and people criticize that as things aren't black and white or right and wrong. But when you look back, you can see decisions that were made that were wrong and ones that were right. People make these decisions all the time: who to choose as friends, who to choose as a partner, what career to choose. The purpose of the choices is to improve the quality of life. To make the right decisions now needs an understanding of what an improved quality of life would be and that's where having a good sense of taste is helpful and a way of judging what will be a success in future. This is an important quality in every success - if you invest money, time, interest in something, you have to have some insight that it will be successful. Steve vaguely described it as believing in something - gut, destiny, karma, whatever - but it's really just imagining a better state of being and making the right judgement calls to get there. Steve had the reason to make Apple what it is and it seems that the reason a lot of the people at Apple chose to be there was for Steve (one high profile employee left the exact day Steve died).

However publications like the one from Kane aren't focusing on asking a question of whether or not Apple still has people who can make that forward-thinking judgement, they've made the decision already that Apple was a one-man operation. They have no right to make that decision on behalf of the people at Apple. We all know Apple is weaker without Steve and not stronger but look at Disney now. Walt Disney died over 47 years ago, is it a haunted empire? It has become a timeless symbol of the co-founder's vision and that's what Apple will be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr O
If she really is that confident about her book. Why does she need to quote Walter Isaacson's on the front cover?

To me it feels like Walter wanted to do her a favor back as she might have helped him out with the research of his book about Steve Jobs.

I don't think Isaacson is all that different. He focused a lot on the negative side of Steve in his book and published it less than 3 weeks after Steve died under the label of being the authoritative autobiography to cash in. His book is very slanted to show one side of Steve. If he was intending to be an unbiased author then why do follow-up interviews saying things like this:

"The greatest innovator in the world right now is Google—not Apple, said Walter Isaacson, author of the best-selling biography "Steve Jobs."

To play catch-up, Cook has to think about what industry he wants to disrupt next, Isaacson said. "I think Steve Jobs would have wanted as the next disruptive thing to either have wearable-like watches or TV, an easy TV that you can walk into the room and say put on 'Squawk Box' … or disrupt the digital camera industry or disrupt textbooks."

"We ought to see in 2014, Apple do something huge," Isaacson said."

Isaacson's as much of a troll as Kane, it makes perfect sense they'd collude because their books are complementary.

These kind of trashy books should be distributed where it belongs, trash can. "touch a never"? Yeah right the only thing it's gonna touch is her bank account due to an impending law suit from Tim Cook and Apple.

Yukari will look like a bigger fool than she does now when Apple let's loose a barrage of new products at WWDC in 90 days. Her writing career is going to be toast

Isaacson's reputation is shi* for putting that recommendation on the cover. Incredible that someone with so much access to Apple and time spend with Steve could be so off the rails

Sorry, but 90 days before WWDC and we don't even have so much as a parts leak. Nope, not going to happen. Apple just launched its "new again" iPad 4. What's next, bring back the iPhone 3 and call it iPhone Retro? If Apple did not have a first mover advantage with the iPhone and iPad, its current products would not stand up to today's competition.

Sorry, but 90 days before WWDC and we don't even have so much as a parts leak. Nope, not going to happen. Apple just launched its "new again" iPad 4. What's next, bring back the iPhone 3 and call it iPhone Retro? If Apple did not have a first mover advantage with the iPhone and iPad, its current products would not stand up to today's competition.

This is completely dumb. The iPhone and iPad weren't the first in their categories when they were released. Stop the revisionist history sh1t. In addition, Apple hasn't announced new products at WWDC often.

I don't think Isaacson is all that different. He focused a lot on the negative side of Steve in his book and published it less than 3 weeks after Steve died under the label of being the authoritative autobiography to cash in. His book is very slanted to show one side of Steve. If he was intending to be an unbiased author then why do follow-up interviews saying things like this:

"The greatest innovator in the world right now is Google—not Apple, said Walter Isaacson, author of the best-selling biography "Steve Jobs."

Isaacson's as much of a troll as Kane, it makes perfect sense they'd collude because their books are complementary.

You are mistaken. It was Steve Jobs who urged Isaacson to also highlight the parts of his Life where he was "not very proud of".

You are also misquoting Isaacson. He indeed said that Apple is not the greatest innovator in the world right now. Google is. However, he added that Apple is much better than Google in implementing innovation.

I'd recommend everyone reading Steve Jobs biography. It is well written and very honest, balanced book about Steve Jobs life. Even Jobs wife approved of the book. I haven't read Kane's book, and I am also not intending to do so. It is very unfortunate that Isaacson's reputation got abused by Kane to give her book credibility.

Well maybe if apple actually put out new products, something creative, and actually maintained its word by making a splash in 2014, they would receive less criticism. Its almost april and still nothing. Samsung has now outdone apples phone, and released a smart watch and a second gen smartwatch. Apple has nothing but court battles to show for its victories. Maybe if customers started to jump ship a bit more to samsung apple might start making better products faster.

We're not 1/4 through 2014, Samedung is falling on its sword, Apple's customers are not jumping ship. But true, it is almost April. You got that bit correct.

I don't care about what the ignorant masses perceive as truth. I'm concerned with the facts on the ground.

Unless I miss my guess, the employees of Apple will gladly take up the moniker of Haunted Empire and run with it, referring to themselves as ghosts immortal about to put the scare into Samedung and other pretenders.

I don't care about what the ignorant masses perceive as truth. I'm concerned with the facts on the ground.

Sorry, but 90 days before WWDC and we don't even have so much as a parts leak. Nope, not going to happen. Apple just launched its "new again" iPad 4. What's next, bring back the iPhone 3 and call it iPhone Retro? If Apple did not have a first mover advantage with the iPhone and iPad, its current products would not stand up to today's competition.

And if there were parts leaks, you'd be bitching how Apple can't keep anything secretive anymore, you'd be mocking Cook's "double-down on security" comment, complaining that nothing is surprising anymore, and reminiscing about the days of Steve Jobs products popped out of thin air at keynotes. Am I close? Of course I am.

Apple did not "launch" the iPad 4. They just fucking replaced the iPad 2 with it, for the same price point, which I have difficult seeing how any reasonable person can construe as a BAD thing. Maybe you can point me to where the iPad4 is featured on Apple's homepage? Isn't that a requirement for a "launch"? Stop your trolling and your twisting of facts. It's sad that you understand so little about Apple's DNA, that you'd want them to shit out a watch or some random product because other companies are doing so. You clearly haven't got the faintest clue about the process that has made them successful. What product do you want, exactly? How will it improve your life and that of others? Again- you don't know. You just want some shiny product X, regardless of the merits or how it would fit in to Apple's ecosystem. I'm glad Cook does not subscribe to that philosophy, and has not strayed from the core values that Jobs believed in.

And if there were parts leaks, you'd be bitching how Apple can't keep anything secretive anymore, you'd be mocking Cook's "double-down on security" comment, complaining that nothing is surprising anymore, and reminiscing about the days of Steve Jobs products popped out of thin air at keynotes. Am I close? Of course I am.

Apple did not "launch" the iPad 4. They just fucking replaced the iPad 2 with it, for the same price point, which I have difficult seeing how any reasonable person can construe as a BAD thing. Maybe you can point me to where the iPad4 is featured on Apple's homepage? Isn't that a requirement for a "launch"? Stop your trolling and your twisting of facts. It's sad that you understand so little about Apple's DNA, that you'd want them to shit out a watch or some random product because other companies are doing so. You clearly haven't got the faintest clue about the process that has made them successful. What product do you want, exactly? How will it improve your life and that of others? Again- you don't know. You just want some shiny product X, regardless of the merits or how it would fit in to Apple's ecosystem. I'm glad Cook does not subscribe to that philosophy, and has not strayed from the core values that Jobs believed in.

Sorry, but 90 days before WWDC and we don't even have so much as a parts leak. Nope, not going to happen. Apple just launched its "new again" iPad 4. What's next, bring back the iPhone 3 and call it iPhone Retro? If Apple did not have a first mover advantage with the iPhone and iPad, its current products would not stand up to today's competition.

That's rather counterfactual: there were tablets a decade or more before the iPad and cellphones even longer.

1. To make money. Loads of it, if possible
2. To make money the easy way. Just talk about Apple, use a catchy title, and make controversial statements
3. Get famous (his name never registered with me before. It has now). Fan the flames. It gets the book selling to reach goal n. 1
4. Present yourself as above goal 1 to 3 ("I wanted to start a discussion")
5. Pre-empt denials and negative analysis by sowing doubt about the people referred to in the book ("it must have touched a nerve" or "if they want to talk to me, I'm available")

The Haunted Empire is just another book for them to read in the bath on their Kindle. Ooh, the intrigue, the mystery, the heroes, the villains, the success, the failure, the emotional turmoil. Guys just want to know when the next computer model is coming - delays in product launches are our indicators that something's not right.

20 5 star reviews of this book showed up on amazon.com yesterday. They all praise the book for its writing and storyline and some call it "riveting". Seems a bit suspicious to me that a book like this gets 20 5 star reviews all in one day, and all of them praise the book for everything it's been panned for. Somehow I suspect these reviews aren't legit.